Beano celebrates 70 years of the beloved character this year, and where better to mark the occasion than with a seven-week summer party at Wimpy restaurants nationwide.
The partnership between the two British heritage brands will see a veritable feast of fun, games and competitions kicking off on 19 July, featuring Dennis and his dog Gnasher, alongside fellow Beanotown friends Minnie, Toots and Plug.
Chris Woolfenden, Wimpy UK General Manager, said: “As a huge Beano fan I am absolutely thrilled to be celebrating Dennis’s anniversary in our restaurants – like any great party we’re promising giveaways and prizes galore, plus plenty of fun.
“Our brands share many similarities – not least the fact that we’re both firm favourites with generations of families. The same people who have grown up reading about the adventures of Dennis and his friends, are the same ones who love coming to Wimpy – and now they bring their children and their grandchildren too. We certainly can’t wait for everyone to join us for a prank-tastic time this summer.”
The promotion sees Wimpy partnering with Beano Studios, whose Franchise Planning and Partnerships Director, Vanessa Andreis, said: “Bringing generations of families together to celebrate Dennis has been at the heart of our celebrations during this special 70th year. We’re can’t wait for families to come and join Dennis for a blamtastic party this summer.”
To mark the special occasion, Wimpy is dishing up specially created Beano goodies for its younger customers to enjoy whilst visiting the restaurants, including a Beano character headband, collectible badge, activity sheet and sticker packs.
There’s also the chance to win an amazing money-can’t-buy prize, with a social media competition to win a family portrait by one of the Beano artists, together with runners-up prizes of Beano goodie bags.
A promotional campaign will be running on Wimpy’s Facebook page throughout the seven weeks, with the hastag #DennisAtWimpy and 65 participating Wimpy restaurants nationwide will be getting into the party spirit by decorating their restaurants with a variety of favourite Beano characters.
Wimpy was born in Britain in 1954 with the opening of the first ‘Wimpy Bar’ at the Lyon’s Corner House in London, making it the first restaurant to serve hamburger-based meals in the UK. It is renowned for being at the heart of its local communities, with friendly customer service and quality value-for-money food served to the table.
Beano was first published by DC Thomson in July 1938 and is still put together in its original Dundee headquarters and printed in the UK each week. A copy of Beano is sold every seven seconds in the UK and Beano has an ABC of 45,644 – an increase of 9.0% YOY. The brand reaches over 5m kids a month on its digital network, centred around multi-award winning Beano.com and fans in more than 100 countries across the world can watch Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!, the Emmy nominated TV series.
